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New research forum to serve as interdisciplinary umbrella network

08 August 2019 | Story Rulanzen Martin | Photo Rulanzen Martin

Indexicality Research Group — The speakers and members of the forum at the colloquium from left; Thys Heidenrich (Drama and Theatre Arts); Dr Martin Rossouw (Art History and Image Studies); Xany Jansen van Vuuren (Linguistics and Language Practice); Kavish Jawahar (Rhodes University); Nessrin Khalil; Prof Kobus Marais (Linguistics and Language Studies); Danilda Els (Centre for Teaching and Learning) and Leon Snyman (Odeion School of Music)

A new research forum launched at the University of the Free State (UFS) hopes to shed new light on social-cultural reality. The socio-cultural tradition looks at the ways we interactively work out understandings, meanings, norms and rules in communication.
The new interdepartmental group called the Indexicality Research Forum (IRF) is the brainchild of Prof Kobus Marais from the Department of Linguistics and Language Practice at UFS.

“The forum should be some kind of umbrella network, rather than a fixed group, studying various aspects of the emergence of social-cultural reality,” says Prof Marais. The forum was officially launched on Friday 19 July 2019 at a research colloquium attended by members from various UFS academic departments as well as Kavish Jawahar from Rhodes University.

For Prof Marais the forum will be “studying various aspects of the emergence of social-cultural reality by using the notion of indexicality as conceptualised by Charles Peirce”.
Peirce was a US scientist and philosopher best known as the earliest proponent of pragmatism.

It is structured around these Five research questions.

The forum consists of the following departments in the faculty; Linguistics and Language Practice, Drama and Theatre Arts, Art History and Image Studies, and the Odeion School of Music, as well Curriculum Studies at Rhodes University. “Internationally, the scholars from the Department of Arts and Design from the Federal University of Juis de Fora in Brazil will also take part in the forum.”

The research forum is not solely for Humanities students but scholars of development studies, cultural studies, mathematics, biology and medicine would also benefit.

News Archive

Qwaqwa campus upgrade begins

2005-06-23

Academic facilities, including lecture halls and the library, on the Qwaqwa campus of the University of the Free State (UFS) will be upgraded to the tune of R1,4-million.

An extra R100 000,00 has also been made available for the upgrading of four staff houses on campus.

The tender for this project was awarded to a local business in the Qwaqwa region, Mguni Enterprises. This phase is expected to be completed next month - July 2005.

This is the second phase of upgrading of the Qwaqwa campus, following the earlier upgrading of student residences to the tune of R6,2-million.

“The total capital injection to improve the infrastructure on the campus is R7,7 -million. The aim of the upgrading is to improve the infrastructure of the campus in order to provide an atmosphere conducive to learning, “said Prof Peter Mbati, Qwaqawa Campus Head.

The first phase of the upgrading - amounting to R6,2 million - comprised of the upgrading of the five student residences and mainly dealt with the maintenance backlog. Residences were painted, old furniture replaced, electricity rewired and the necessary alterations made to ensure sufficient hot water supply as well as a new look to the face of the residences.

According to Prof Mbati the student visiting areas, reception areas and rooms were also improved by the changes in the first phase. The renovated residences now also boast facilities such as kitchenettes, washing machines and tumble driers and computers rooms.

There are currently 754 students staying in the residences. Three residences accommodate female students and the other two are for male students. Students who are not accommodated on campus stay at the former Tshiya College of Education, approximately 5 kilometers from the campus. These students are bussed in to the campus on a daily basis.

“All these developments are a major step forward for the Qwaqwa campus as it once again shows our commitment to the campus to make it an attractive site of higher education in the Eastern Free State,” said Prof Frederick Fourie, Rector and Vice-Chancellor of the UFS.

Media release

Issued by:  Lacea Loader
   Media Representative
   Tel: (051) 401-2584
   Cell: 083 645 2454
   E-mail: loaderl.stg@mail.uovs.ac.za

23 June 2005

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